New Zealand
Shopkeepers are being fleeced by fake $100 notes featuring a sheep wearing a tiara in the place where Queen Elizabeth's portrait should be. Police said the notes were crude forgeries but some merchants in Rodney, near Auckland, were taken in.

Brazil
A surge in drugs and mobile phones in a prison mystified officials, until guards spotted some distressed pigeons struggling to stay airborne. Inmates had bypassed the prison's high-tech security using carrier pigeons to smuggle in goods using pouches on their backs.

China
A couple received a police caution for trying to teach their dog to drive. Police at Liunan reportedly spotted a car driving too slowly on a local expressway. As they pulled in behind the car, officers saw a poodle with its front legs on the steering wheel and its rear legs on the driver.

USA
A man who says he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while worshipping wants his former church to pay $US2.5 million for medical bills and lost income. Matt Lincoln of Tennessee says he was asking God to have "a real experience" while praying.

Sweden
An eight-year-old boy has sparked an outcry in after not inviting two classmates to his birthday party. The boy's school, in Lund, says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to Parliament. It argues if invitations are handed out there must be no discrimination.

Italy
Tourists may be sent back to remove graffiti etched into the Duomo of Florence after a search for culprits in Japan. A schoolteacher and several university students have been traced after photographs of graffiti on the Florentine landmark were circulated in Japan.